The Sun, UK
| Gucci Grace blows
£75k |
 |
 |
|
Greed ... Grace Mugabe, in
£10,000 gown, with
Robert |
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| |
|
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GRACE MUGABE, wife of brutal Zimbabwean president Robert, likes to be called
“First Lady”.
She has nothing but contempt for the starving millions of
his subjects.
Today The Sun probes her cruelty and
extravangance.
By SALLY BROOK
SHE is dubbed First Shopper and Grabbing Grace by her people.
She is
far more likely to be found stripping top European boutiques or lounging in
five-star hotels than listening to the desperate needs of Zimbabwe’s hungry and
homeless.
What makes her frivolity so disturbing is that while she shops,
ordinary Zimbabweans starve.
Last year Grace, 39, blew an estimated
£75,000 in just TWO HOURS in Paris fashion houses.
Her
spending has reached such ridiculous levels many have accused her of being
addicted to Gucci.
On her French jaunt, the former secretary had bought
so much her aides needed an extra car to transport her goods to the
airport.
Meanwhile, back in her home country inflation is now rife.
It is cheaper to use a 1,000 Zimbabwean dollar note as toilet paper,
than use it to purchase loo roll.
Today, 4,000 Zimbabwean dollars are
worth less than 50p.
Two out of three of the country’s workers earn
just £1 a day.
 |
| Value ... 4,000ZD is
worth just 50p |
Grace
Mugabe’s Paris spree might seem like incredible excess, but as far as she is
concerned, it was a drop in the ocean.
Her timing was immaculate.
Weeks earlier the World Food Programme was releasing a report saying
more than seven million in Zimbabwe were dying of starvation.
But Grace
carried on regardless.
And her doting husband Mugabe — 40 years older
than she is — does not shy away from indulging his well-built wife.
He
even bought her a lavishly-equipped DC-9, formerly owned by Playboy baron Hugh
Hefner.
The gift was to help with Grace’s shopping.
With her
own plane she was able to go on regular shopping jollies to New York, London and
Rome.
In London, Grace likes to stay in the sumptuous surrounds of
Claridge’s, conveniently close to elegant shops of Kensington.
At least
now she has her own plane other Air Zimbabwe passengers are spared the
humiliation of being turfed off flights to accommodate their first lady and her
numerous parcels.
When she used to use the country’s commercial airline
she would also order pilots to land at military air bases instead of the normal
airport so she could avoid paying duty on her purchases.
She and Mugabe
now own at least SIX luxury properties.
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| Mad ... seven
million Zimbabweans are said to be
starving |
Grace laughed
off outraged criticism after it was revealed that she used public funds to build
an incredibly vulgar home called Gracelands in a plush Harare suburb.
The finance came from a US aid programme intended to help the poor.
Gracelands was then sold to the Mugabes’ pal Colonel Gaddafi for three times
its original price.
But the Mugabes have acquired another house nearby
and are investing £10million in it.
The mansion is stuffed full of
imported Italian tiles, pillars, sunken baths and chandeliers.
The
master bedroom alone has as much floor space as an entire typical semi-detached
home.
She is overseeing the installation of a gym, sauna, library, bar
and billiard room.
Among their other homes, the Mugabes also own a
three-storey mansion overlooking a golf course.
Apart from her
relentless greed, little else is known about Grace’s background.
What is
clear is that she started an affair with the President while she was a secretary
at the State House in Harare. Mugabe married Grace bigamously as his first wife,
Sally, was dying.
 |
| Welcome ... Chirac
and Mugabe in
Paris |
Perhaps Grace is
now given such freedom because she gave Mugabe what he most desired — a son,
Robert junior.
She has since borne him a daughter and a second
son
Grace, who was a good student at her Cathollic school, married Flight
Lt Patrick Guririza in her teens.
But once her affair with Mugabe began,
her husband was conveniently posted to Beijing — and has yet to return.
At least while he was with Sally, Mugabe managed to publicly maintain
his socialist credentials.
But we now know he squandered many
millions of pounds donated by Britain to help in the redistribution of land to
homeless blacks.
His achievements to date, as we revealed yesterday,
are a catalogue of horrors.
That Grabbing Grace can swan around flaunting
her money is all the more crass when you look at the reality most Zimbabweans
face.
For them, luxury would be reliable electricity, fresh water and ...
food.
A spokesman for the Movement For Democratic Change, Zimbabwe’s
persecuted opposition, said: “At a time when most Zimbabweans are starving and
the average township black lives in a tiny house with, on average, 16 other
people, the way our crooked president and his scheming wife flash their wealth
in front of them is an insult to the citizens they claim to care
for.
“One day the Mugabes will pay heavily.”
|
European Union - New Sanctions list February 2004
Article 6
1. All
funds and economic resources belonging to individual
members of the
Government of Zimbabwe and to any natural
or legal persons, entities or
bodies associated with them as
listed in Annex III shall be frozen.
2. No
funds or economic resources shall be made available,
directly or indirectly,
to or for the benefit of natural or legal
persons, entities or bodies listed
in Annex III.
3. The participation, knowingly and intentionally, in
activities
the object or effect of which is, directly or indirectly,
to
promote the transactions referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2
shall be
prohibited.ANNEX III
List of persons referred to in Article
6
1. Mugabe, Robert Gabriel President, born 21.2.1924
2. Buka (a.k.a.
Bhuka), Flora Minister of State in Vice-President's
Office (former Minister
of State
for the Land Reform Programme in the President's Office),
born
25.2.1968
3. Bonyongwe, Happyton Director-General Central
Intelligence
Organisation, born 6.11.1960
4. Chapfika, David Deputy
Minister of Finance and Economic Development
5. Charamba, George Permanent
Secretary Department for Information
and Publicity, born
4.4.1963
6.
Charumbira, Fortune Zefanaya Deputy Minister for Local Government,
Public
Works and National
Housing, born 10.6.1962
7. Chigwedere, Aeneas Soko
Minister of Education, Sports and Culture,
born 25.11.1939
8. Chihuri,
Augustine Police Commissioner, born 10.3.1953
9. Chikowore, Enos C. ZANU (PF)
Politburo Secretary for Land and
Resettlement, born 1936
10. Chinamasa,
Patrick Anthony Minister of Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs, born
25.1.1947
11. Chindori-Chininga, Edward Takaruza former Minister of Mines
and
Mining Development, born 14.3.1955
12. Chipanga, Tongesai Shadreck
Deputy Minister of Home Affairs
13. Chiwenga, Constantine Commander Zimbabwe
Defence Forces, General
(former Army
Commander, Lieutenant General), born
25.8.1956
14. Chiwewe, Willard Senior Secretary responsible for Special
Affairs
in the President's
Office (former Senior Secretary, Ministry of
Foreign Affairs), born
19.3.1949
15. Chombo, Ignatius Morgan Chiminya
Minister of Local Government,
Public Works and National Housing,
born
1.8.1952
16. Dabengwa, Dumiso ZANU (PF) Politburo Senior Committee Member,
born 1939
17. Goche, Nicholas Tasunungurwa Minister of State for
National
Security in the President's Office (former
Security Minister),
born 1.8.1946
18. Gula-Ndebele, Sobuza Chairman of Electoral Supervisory
Commission
19. Gumbo, Rugare Eleck Ngidi Minister of State for State
Enterprises
and Parastatals in the President's
Office (former Deputy
Minister of Home Affairs, born 8.3.1940
20. Hove, Richard ZANU (PF) Politburo
Secretary for Economic Affairs, born
1935
21. Hungwe, Josaya (a.k.a.
Josiah) Dunira Provincial Governor:
Masvingo, born 7.11.1935
22. Kangai,
Kumbirai ZANU (PF) Politburo Committee Member, born 17.2.1938
23.
Karimanzira, David Ishemunyoro Godi ZANU (PF) Politburo Secretary
for
Finance, born 25.5.1947
24. Kasukuwere, Saviour ZANU (PF) Politburo
Deputy-Secretary for
Youth Affairs, born
23.10.1970
25. Kuruneri,
Christopher Tichaona Minister of Finance and Economic
Development (former
Deputy
Minister of Finance and Economic Development), born 4.4.1949
26.
Langa, Andrew Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications
27. Lesabe,
Thenjiwe V. ZANU (PF) Politburo Secretary for Women's
Affairs, born
1933
28. Machaya, Jason (a.k.a. Jaison) Max Kokerai Deputy Minister
of
Mines and Mining Development, born 13.6.1952
29. Made, Joseph Mtakwese
Minister of Agriculture and Rural
Development (former Minister of
Lands,
Agricultural and Rural Resettlement), born 21.11.1954
30. Madzongwe, Edna
(a.k.a. Edina) ZANU (PF) Politburo Deputy
Secretary for Production and
Labour,
born 11.7.1943
31. Mahofa, Shuvai Ben Deputy Minister for Youth
Development, Gender
and Employment
Creation, born 4.4.1941
32. Mahoso,
Tafataona Chair, Media Information Commission
33. Makoni, Simbarashe ZANU
(PF) Politburo Deputy Secretary General
for Economic Affairs
(former
Minister of Finance), born 22.3.1950
34. Malinga, Joshua ZANU (PF) Politburo
Deputy Secretary for Disabled
and Disadvantaged,
born 28.4.1944
35.
Mangwana, Paul Munyaradzi Minister of Public Service, Labour and
Social
Welfare (former Minister
of State for State Enterprises and Parastatals in
the President's Office),
born 10.8.1961
36. Mangwende, Witness Pasichigare
Madunda Provincial Governor:
Harare (former Minister for Transport
and
Communications), born 15.10.1946
37. Manyika, Elliot Tapfumanei
Minister without Portfolio (former
Minister of Youth Development,
Gender
and Employment Creation), born 30.7.1955
38. Manyonda, Kenneth Vhundukai
Deputy Minister of Industry and
International Trade, born 10.8.1934
39.
Marumahoko, Rueben Deputy Minister of Energy and Power
Development, born
4.4.1948
40. Masawi, Ephrahim Sango Provincial Governor: Mashonaland
Central
41. Masuku, Angeline Provincial Governor: Matabeleland South
(ZANU
(PF) Politburo Secretary
for Disabled and Disadvantaged), born
14.10.1936
42. Mathema, Cain Provincial Governor: Bulawayo
43. Mathuthu,
T. ZANU (PF) Politburo Deputy Secretary for Transport
and
Social
Welfare
44. Midzi, Amos Bernard (Mugenva) Minister of Mines
and Mining
Development (former Minister of
Energy and Power Development),
born 4.7.1952
45. Mnangagwa, Emmerson Dambudzo Speaker of Parliament, born
15.9.1946
46. Mohadi, Kembo Campbell Dugishi Minister of Home Affairs
(former
Deputy Minister of Local Government,
Public Works and National
Housing), born 15.11.1949
47. Moyo, Jonathan Minister of State for
Information and Publicity in
the President's
Office, born 12.1.1957
48.
Moyo, July Gabarari Minister of Energy and Power Development
(former Minister
of Public
Service, Labour and Social Welfare), born 7.5.1950
49. Moyo,
Simon Khaya ZANU (PF) Politburo Deputy Secretary for Legal
Affairs, born
1945
50. Mpofu, Obert Moses Provincial Governor: Matabeleland North
(ZANU
(PF) Politburo
Deputy Secretary for National Security), born
12.10.1951
51. Msika, Joseph W. Vice-President, born 6.12.1923
52. Msipa,
Cephas George Provincial Governor: Midlands, born 7.7.1931
53. Muchena,
Olivia Nyembesi (a.k.a. Nyembezi)
Minister of State for Science and
Technology in the President's Office
(former Minister of State in
Vice-President Msika's Office), born
18.8.1946
54. Muchinguri, Oppah Chamu
Zvipange ZANU (PF) Politburo Secretary
for Gender and Culture,
born
14.12.1958
55. Mudede, Tobaiwa (Tonneth) Registrar General, born
22.12.1942
56. Mudenge, Isack Stanilaus Gorerazvo Minister of Foreign
Affairs,
born 17.12.1941
57. Mugabe, Grace Spouse of Robert Gabriel
Mugabe, born 23.7.1965
58. Mugabe, Sabina ZANU (PF) Politburo Senior
Committee Member, born
14.10.1934
59. Mujuru, Joyce Teurai Ropa Minister
of Water Resources and
Infrastructural Development (former
Minister of
Rural Resources and Water Development), born
15.4.1955
60. Mujuru, Solomon
T.R. ZANU (PF) Politburo Senior Committee Member,
born 1.5.1949
61.
Mumbengegwi, Samuel Creighton Minister of Industry and
International Trade
(former Minister of
Higher Education and Technology), born 23.10.1942
62.
Murerwa, Herbert Muchemwa Minister of Higher and Tertiary
Education (former
Minister of Finance
and Economic Development), born 31.7.1941
63.
Mushohwe, Christopher Chindoti Minister of Transport and
Communications
(former Deputy Minister
of Transport and Communications, born 6.2.1954
64.
Mutasa, Didymus Noel Edwin Minister of Special Affiars in the
President's
Office in charge of the
Anti-Corruption and Anti-Monopolies Programme (former
ZANU (PF)
Politburo Secretary for External Relations), born 27.7.1935
65.
Mutinhiri, Ambros (a.k.a. Ambrose) Minister of Youth Development,
Gender and
Employment Creation,
Retired Brigadier
66. Mutiwekuziva, Kenneth Kaparadza
Deputy Minister of Small and
Medium Enterprises Development,
born
27.5.1948
67. Muzenda, Tsitsi V. ZANU (PF) Politburo Senior Committee
Member,
born 28.10.1922
68. Muzonzini, Elisha Brigadier (former
Director-General Central
Intelligence Organisation),
born 24.6.1957
69.
Ncube, Abedinico Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, born 13.10.1954
70.
Ndlovu, Naison K. ZANU (PF) Politburo Secretary for Production
and Labour,
born
22.10.1930
71. Ndlovu, Sikhanyiso ZANU (PF) Politburo Deputy
Secretary for
Commissariat, born
20.9.1949
72. Nhema, Francis Minister
of Environment and Tourism, born 17.4.1959
73. Nkomo, John Landa Minister of
Special Affairs in the President's Office
74. Nyambuya, Michael Reuben
Lieutenant General, Provincial Governor:
Manicaland
75. Nyoni, Sithembiso
Gile Glad Minister of Small and Medium
Enterprises Development
(former
Minister of State for the Informal Sector), born 20.9.1949
76.
Parirenyatwa, David Pagwese Minister of Health and Child Welfare
(former
Deputy Minister), born
2.8.1950
77. Pote, Selina M. ZANU (PF) Politburo
Deputy Secretary for Gender and
Culture
78. Rusere, Tinos Deputy Minister
for Water Resources and
Infrastructural Development
(former Deputy
Minister of Rural Resources and Water Development),
born 10.5.1945
79.
Sakupwanya, Stanley ZANU (PF) Politburo Deputy Secretary for
Health and Child
Welfare
80. Samkange, Nelson Tapera Crispen Provincial Governor: Mashonaland
West
81. Sekeramayi, Sydney (a.k.a. Sidney) Tigere Minister of
Defence,
born 30.3.1944
82. Shamu,Webster Minister of State for Policy
Implementation in the
President's Office,
born 6.6.1945
83.
Shamuyarira, Nathan Marwirakuwa ZANU (PF) Politburo Secretary for
Information
and Publicity, born
29.9.1928
84. Shiri, Perence Air Marshal (Air Force),
born 1.11.1955
85. Shumba, Isaiah Masvayamwando Deputy Minister of Education,
Sports
and Culture, born 3.1.1949
86. Sibanda, Jabulani Chair, National
War Veterans Association, born
31.12.1970
87. Sibanda, Misheck Julius
Mpande Cabinet Secretary (successor to
No. 93 Charles Utete), born
3.5.1949
88. Sibanda, Phillip Valerio (a.k.a. Valentine) Commander
Zimbabwe
National Army, Lieutenant General, born
25.8.1956
89.
Sikosana, Absolom ZANU (PF) Politburo Secretary for Youth Affairs
90. Stamps,
Timothy Health Advisor in the Office of the President,
born 15.10.1936
91.
Tawengwa, Solomon Chirume ZANU (PF) Politburo Deputy Secretary
for Finance,
born 15.6.1940
92. Tungamirai, Josiah T. Minister of State for Indigenisation
and
Empowerment, Retired Air
Marshall (former ZANU (PF) Politburo
Secretary for Empowerment
and Indigenisation), born 8.10.1948
93. Utete,
Charles Chairman of the Presidential Land Review Committee
(former
Cabinet
Secretary), born 30.10.1938
94. Zimonte, Paradzai Prisons
Director, born 4.3.1947
95. Zvinavashe, Vitalis Retired General (former Chief
of Defense
Staff), born 27.9.1943
From The US Treasury, 2 March
Treasury designates seven entities as
Specially Designated Nationals of
Zimbabwe
The Department of the
Treasury today announced the designation of seven
Zimbabwean entities, three
commercial farms and four businesses, as
Specially Designated Nationals
(SDNs) of Zimbabwe. "Today's action
illustrates the Bush Administration's
commitment to condemn those who
threaten the democratic process and
institutions in Zimbabwe by isolating
and exposing them and the entities they
own and control," said Juan Zarate,
the U.S. Treasury Department's Deputy
Assistant Secretary for the Executive
Office of Terrorist Financing and
Financial Crimes.
The farms, owned by Jonathan Moyo, Minister of
Information of Zimbabwe, are
among those that were passed on to favored
members of the Mugabe regime
following his chaotic land redistribution
scheme. The four other businesses
designated today include:
M & S
Syndicate (Pvt) Ltd., an influential Zimbabwean holding company owned
by the
ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF).
M&S
Syndicate (Pvt) Ltd. is controlled by SDN Emmerson Mnangagwa,
Parliamentary
Speaker of Zimbabwe, and four other prohibited
officials;
Zimbabwe Defence Industries (Pvt) Ltd., a government-owned
manufacturer and
distributor of arms, ammunition and other military-related
items;
Swift Investments (Pvt) Ltd., which operates miscellaneous retail
stores;
and
Zvinavashe Investments (Pvt) Ltd., which manufactures
transportation
equipment.
Zimbabwe Defence, Swift Investments and
Zvinavashe are controlled by the
retired Zimbabwe Defense Forces General,
Vitalis Zvinavashe.
Each of the seven entities is controlled by one or
more key members of the
Mugabe regime that were named as prohibited persons
in the Annex to
Executive Order 13288. This Order imposes economic sanctions
on persons who
undermine democratic processes and institutions in Zimbabwe.
The President
of Zimbabwe, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, and 76 other Zimbabwean
government
officials and persons of influence are included in the Annex.
Executive
Order 13288 provides for the blocking of properties within U.S.
jurisdiction
or the possession or control of U.S. persons in which the SDNs
have an
interest. Blocked properties are denied access to the U.S. financial
system.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
worked in
close consultation with the U.S. State Department in the
designation of
these seven entities. Treasury will continue working closely
with the State
Department in implementation of Executive Order 13288 to
disrupt the efforts
of those who disregard democracy. Doing business with an
SDN of Zimbabwe may
carry criminal penalties of up to $500,000, twice the
monetary gain or loss
per violation for an organization. Individual criminal
penalties may be up
to $250,000 or twice the monetary gain or loss per
violation. Individuals
may also face imprisonment for up to ten years for a
criminal violation. In
addition, civil penalties of up to $11,000 per
violation may be
imposed
administratively.
.......................................
From
IOL (SA), 3 March
US widens its sanctions against
Zimbabwe
Washington - The United States on Tuesday said it was widening
an existing
sanctions regime against Zimbabwe to include seven
government-related
businesses. The enhanced US sanctions ban any transactions
with the seven
black-listed groups. The US state department said the
sanctions will apply
to commercial farms "seized" by Zimbabwe Information
Minister Jonathan Moyo;
Zimbabwe Defence Industries, a state-owned arms maker
and M&S Syndicate, a
holding group owned by the ruling Zimbabwe African
National Union-Patriotic
Front. Also targeted are two companies "representing
the interests" of
retired Zimbabwe Defence Forces General Vitalis Zvinavashe,
the state
department said in a statement. "Should Zimbabwe's rulers continue
to
oppress its citizens and to resist forthright efforts toward resolving
the
country's political crisis, we are prepared to impose additional
targeted
financial and travel sanctions on those undermining democracy in
Zimbabwe,"
the state department said. A high profile state department human
rights
report, released here in February, said Zimbabwe's government
continued to
oversee "a concerted campaign of violence, repression and
intimidation."
"Torture by various methods is used against political
opponents and human
rights advocates," the report added.
SOKWANELE
Enough is Enough
Zimbabwe
PROMOTING NON-VIOLENT PRINCIPLES TO ACHIEVE DEMOCRACY
We have a fundamental right to freedom of
expression!
03 March
2004
As
part of our motivation towards supporting civic action and promoting democracy
in Zimbabwe through non-violent means, Sokwanele is pleased to announce the launch of
our website: www.sokwanele.com.
Sokwanele.com aims to fulfil two
functions: the first, which is already underway, is to provide our
visitors with regularly updated news from local and international media sources,
and original news and images from Sokwanele
sources.
Headlines are updated on our homepage throughout the week,
while the other areas of the website, updated weekly, focus on sorting recent
news by subject. This makes it easy for visitors to immediately access the
information they seek according to their own particular interests.
The
subject sections are as follows: Justice,
Economy,
Wildlife
and
Environment,
Social Welfare, Our People,
and Elections. We feel that this subject focused approach complements the excellent
work done by other sites already dedicated to providing breaking news on a daily
basis to our community.
Sokwanele.com’s
second objective, currently under development, is to provide visitors
with the detailed information that supports and makes the news; including
downloadable reports issued by international and local organisations, changing
legislation, and media statements. We anticipate it will take a short while to
build up our resources, but feel that this feature of Sokwanele.com will eventually be especially
beneficial to journalists, researchers and students – or anyone who wants a
comprehensive understanding of what’s happening in Zimbabwe.
We'll keep
you posted on our progress through this mailing list. In the meanwhile, we
welcome you to www.sokwanele.com.
Ends
From Business Day (SA), 3 MarchMbeki is still Zimbabwe point man,
says top US Africa official
'The jury is out as to whether SA has
done enough to help resolve the
crisis - we are not getting a sense of
progress'
International Affairs Editor
The US is impatient
to see a settlement in Zimbabwe, but for the moment it
still considers
President Thabo Mbeki the "point man" on negotiations, says
the most senior
US state department official on Africa. Charles Snyder,
acting assistant
secretary of state for African affairs, said: "The jury is
out as to whether
SA has done enough to help resolve the crisis." Snyder was
in SA earlier this
week to speak with US diplomats. The problem "is we are
not getting a sense
of progress", on bringing about a settlement in
Zimbabwe, Snyder said. He
said the US had not imposed a deadline on SA
achieving a settlement, "but
there is a clear sense of urgency because
people are dying". When President
George Bush said on his visit to SA last
year he considered Mbeki the "point
man" on Zimbabwe there was no deadline
set for a settlement, and there was
none now, Snyder said. The crisis, he
said, must ultimately be resolved by
Zimbabweans and countries in the
region. "Our option is to reach out more
broadly as this is a process that
needs many heads," he said. "We believe
that the Africans will push Zimbabwe
to closure."
Zimbabwe, he
said, had become a problem for the New Partnership for Africa's
Development
(Nepad), and had come at a crucial time for the initiative.
Nepad, he said,
was not dissimilar in its basics from the US' Millennium
Challenge Account, a
Bush administration initiative to support African
countries in their reform
efforts. But Snyder said the sequencing was
different with Nepad asking for
money ahead of promised reforms. Snyder said
the US wanted to be shown reform
efforts were under way prior to supporting
them. The signs are that with no
settlement in Zimbabwe and Nepad in its
early stages, that Africa will not be
a high-profile issue at the Group of
Eight (G-8) Summit that the US will host
this year. "There are crises
elsewhere in the world," said Snyder. But he did
expect the G-8 would
discuss UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's recently
appointed commission looking
into Africa's problems.
Despite the
pressure of the US budget deficit, Snyder said that the US
congress would if
it was convinced of progress in Africa approve the Bush
administration's
request for an increase in aid under the Millennium
Challenge Account as well
as the programme to combat to HIV/AIDS. With the
US election in November,
Snyder said it was difficult to predict whether the
US congress would renew
the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, which gives
tariff- and quota-free
access to African countries for certain goods with US
or local input , in the
next few months. But he said the need for a longer
extension of the act was
something on which there was likely to be broad
agreement between Democrats
and Republicans. Snyder said the US effort to
assist African countries on
fighting terrorism through intelligence- sharing
and other measures such as
improved airport, customs, and border controls,
"is not a one-off short
campaign". He said the US was "well satisfied" with
the South African
"reaction and willingness" to cooperate in fighting
terrorism
From The Herald, 3 March
Nkala murder case: State evidence ruled
inadmissible
Court Reporter
The warned and cautioned
statements by three MDC activists accused of
kidnapping and murdering war
veterans' leader Cde Cain Nkala cannot be
admitted as evidence, the High
Court ruled yesterday. Handing down judgment
in the "trial-within-a trial" in
the murder case, Justice Sandra Mungwira
also rejected the video recording in
which Remember Moyo, Khethani Sibanda
and Sazini Mpofu were making
indications from the police to where Cde Nkala'
s body was found. The ruling
comes after the three had challenged the
validity of their statements. They
said they confessed to kidnapping and
murdering Cde Nkala under duress. "As a
result, the warned and cautioned
indications, statements and video recording
sought to be produced by the
State against each of the accused are ruled to
be inadmissible," she said.
The court held a "trial-within-a trial" seeking
to establish whether the
police had forced Moyo, Sibanda and Mpofu to make
the confessions. In their
evidence, police said the three confessed to the
murder of the war veterans'
leader without any undue influence.
In her
ruling, Justice Mungwira found that the police officers' accounts on
the
manner in which the suspects were handled, were fraught with
inconsistencies.
She said the State witnesses made a poor showing as their
testimonies lacked
coherence. Under the circumstances, the judge said, it
would be foolhardy to
conclude from the facts presented that the State had
proved its case. "The
witnesses conducted themselves in a shameless fashion
and displayed utter
contempt for the due administration of justice to the
extent that they were
prepared to indulge in what can only be described as
works of fiction as is
especially illustrated by the state of (the)
investigations diary." The judge
also found that the fears expressed by the
defence during the proceedings,
although at times exaggerated, were
reasonable. The three are jointly charged
with MDC legislator Fletcher
Dulini-Ncube, Nicholas Masera and Army Zulu.
They all deny the charges,
claiming political persecution. Cde Nkala was
kidnapped and murdered in
November 2001 as campaigning for 2002 presidential
election heated up. His
decomposing body was found buried in a shallow grave
at Norwood Farm near
Solusi University outside Bulawayo. The date for the
continuation of trial
is still to be announced. Advocates Happias Zhou, Edith
Mushore, Erik Morris
and Deepak Mehta are representing the six MDC activists
in the case,
instructed by Bulawayo based lawyers Mr Nicholas Mathonsi and Mr
Josephat
Tshuma. Mr Neville Wamambo and Mr Charles Kandemiri are appearing
for the
State.
IOL
US is 'fighting Zimbabwe with condoms'
March 03 2004 at
04:03PM
Harare - The United States was trying to remove
Zimbabwe's President Robert
Mugabe from power with millions of condoms as
weapons, state radio in that
country said on Wednesday.
It said
American President George Bush's regime was behind the "rebranding"
of
prophylactics that carry a bright red and yellow sticker
advertising
"revolutionary condoms" and a message urging Zimbabweans to "get
up, stand
up!"
A bulletin said condoms carrying a sticker with "an
oppositional political
message" were being distributed throughout Zimbabwe
"in what appears to be
collusion between opposition groups and a US-based
condom manufacturer."
The radio said the appearance of the redecorated
condom packets was "not
surprising, since the United States government has
made it clear it is
working toward changing of the regime in Zimbabwe, using,
among other
things, the media."
The sticker also bears the name of a
non-violent underground group of
activists with the name and motto,
"Enough!", an appeal to Zimbabweans to
stop tolerating abuse by Mugabe's
government. The motto appears in graffiti,
and is also the name of a news
sheet secretly distributed.
The words on the condom are from a
composition by reggae legend Bob Marley
who sang, "Get up, stand up, stand up
for your rights, get up, stand up,
don't give up the fight." He performed the
song in front of Mugabe and
thousands of ecstatic Zimbabweans at the
country's independence celebrations
in 1980.
Recipients of the news
sheet two weeks ago found the "revolutionary condom"
inside.
No
comment could be obtained from the United States embassy, but an activist
who
asked not to be named said: "the Americans had nothing to do with it."
He
said "a few hundred" condoms had been bought, and locally printed
stickers
had been glued on before handing them out.
The bulletin linked the
"revolutionary" condoms to Population Services
International, a
Washington-based non-profit organisation working for child
and maternal
health HIV prevention.
PSI provides condoms for aid programmes in
Zimbabwe, but by far the biggest
provider is the United States Agency for
International Development with a
budget this year of $8,5-million (about
R60-million) that will provide 89
million American-manufactured condoms to
Zimbabweans.
Condoms are estimated to be the cheapest commodity in
Zimbabwe, selling for
about Z$2 each, or a twentieth of a US cent. About 49
million of the USAid
condoms are issued to the private sector for sale, and
the rest go to health
institutions for free distribution.
Health
officials say as a result of the USAid programme, condom use in
Zimbabwe has
risen to about 100 million a year, and proved to be a major
factor in
restricting the spread of HIV.
"If the Americans had wanted to achieve
regime change in Zimbabwe, they
could have used something more forceful than
condoms," said a Western
diplomat. "They must have saved the lives of
thousands of Zimbabweans. It's
a weird mind that sees the condom programme as
a way of overthrowing
Mugabe."
Enough!, known in Shona as Zvakwana!
and Sokwanele! in Ndebele, was formed
around 2002, to galvanise opposition
against Mugabe around the time he won
presidential elections that were
dismissed by independent international
groups as the result of fraud and
violent intimidation.
When Mugabe celebrated his 80th birthday last
month, Enough! circulated
stamped postcards, with Mugabe's address and
carrying a photograph of two
frightened, sickly children.
"There is no
reason to celebrate your 80th birthday," it said on the back of
the card.
"HIV and Aids, poverty and hunger are robbing our children and our
country of
a future. Why don't you care?" - Sapa
news.com.au
Revolutionary condoms campaign
From correspondents in
Harare
March 4, 2004
HUMAN rights activists have launched a
"revolutionary condoms" campaign,
using stickers on condom packages to urge
Zimbabweans to "stand up" against
President Robert Mugabe's autocratic
rule.
State radio today blamed the United States, the largest supplier of
condoms
to Zimbabwe, claiming the bright red and yellow stickers that have
started
appearing on condom packages in recent days were "part of US
government
plans for regime change".
US officials said they had nothing to
do with the campaign.
A secretive group calling itself Zvakwana, or "Enough
is Enough" in the
local Shona language, claimed responsibility for the
stickers, which quote
Bob Marley's popular song Get Up, Stand Up. The late
reggae legend performed
the song at Zimbabwe's independence celebrations in
1980.
The US Agency for International Development is supplying 90 million
condoms
to Zimbabwe this year at a cost of about $US8.5 million ($11.16
million).
Together with the independent Washington-based Population
Services
International group, they supply most of the condoms available in
the
AIDS-stricken southern African country.
Many are distributed free, and
those sold in stores are heavily subsidised.
A pack of three condoms sells
for as little as six Zimbabwe dollars
(one-sixth of a US cent). A box of
matches costs 30 times more.
Zimbabwe was plunged into its worst political
and economic crisis since
independence from Britain when the government began
seizing thousands of
white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks in
2000.
The country now faces rampant inflation, along with acute shortages of
food,
petrol and other essentials.
The government has also stepped up a
crackdown on dissent, arresting
opposition leaders, trade unionists, human
rights activists and journalists.
Zvakwana identifies itself on its website
as a nonviolent group seeking to
promote civic action against Mugabe's
government. None of its members is
identified for fear of arrest under
sweeping security laws.
The Associated Press
BBC
Aussies pleased by Zimbabwe
Cricket Australia are
satisfied with security arrangements for the
team's tour to Zimbabwe in
May.
A three-man Australian delegation spent three days in Harare
and
Bulawayo.
"We've had two very good days with them and their
response has been
favourable," said Zimbabwe Cricket Union managing director
Vince Hogg.
A final decision will be made in two weeks but CA has
said security
factors, rather than moral arguments, are the only possible
sticking point.
In contrast, England's October tour to Zimbabwe
could be postponed
because of objections to President Robert
Mugabe.
England's fears will be discussed at a meeting of the
International
Cricket Council's executive board next week.
Under
ICC rules, every member nation must tour every other country at
least once
every five years.
The Australian trio, CA general manager Michael
Brown, team manager
Steve Bernard and players union chief executive Tim May,
met government
officials and police and inspected grounds.
They
will now fly to Sri Lanka to discuss their findings with the
Australian
team.
The Australian government is opposed to the tour on moral
grounds,
fearing the Mugabe regime, which has been accused of human rights
abuses,
will use the visit for political gain.
Australia
cancelled a tour of Zimbabwe in 2002 for security reasons
but played in
Bulawayo during the 2003 World Cup.
Forbes.com
ANALYSIS-S.Africa, Zimbabwe take divergent paths
Reuters,
03.03.04, 4:20 AM ET
By Ed Stoddard
JOHANNESBURG, March 4
(Reuters) - As South Africa prepares to celebrate a
decade of democracy, some
investors nervously look north to Zimbabwe, which
threw off white minority
rule in 1980 and is today a smouldering ruin.
Analysts say the different
economic paths the two countries took from day
one of their revolutions mean
they are unlikely to converge. Zimbabwe
embarked on a spending spree it could
not afford while South Africa put its
financial house in
order.
"Zimbabwe went on an unsustainable level of social spending,
education in
particular," said Tony Hawkins, professor at the graduate school
of
management at the University of Zimbabwe.
Such expenditure may have
been morally justified to redress the imbalances
of the colonial past and
paid off in many ways. According to World Bank
figures, Zimbabwe's literacy
rate in 2000 was second only to Lesotho's in
Africa at over 80
percent.
But some analysts say fiscal recklessness sowed the seeds of the
economy's
destruction as it could not be maintained in a country that failed
to
attract the capital needed for growth.
"Lots of donor aid came to
Zimbabwe in the 1980s but almost no foreign
investment," said
Hawkins.
Some analysts have argued that after overspending in the 1980s,
Zimbabwe --
then inspired by the now-discredited regimes of the Soviet bloc
-- found
itself in an uncomfortable embrace with the International Monetary
Fund
(IMF).
It then tried to swallow the tough medicine prescribed by
the IMF, only to
spit it out in disgust, depriving itself of much needed aid
as poverty
worsened.
In the 1990s President Robert Mugabe's government
pursued one ruinous policy
after another, culminating in the seizure of
productive white-owned farms
for redistribution to poor
blacks.
Zimbabwe now suffers from acute shortages of food, fuel and hard
currency,
rocketing unemployment and inflation of more than 600 percent, one
of the
highest rates in the world.
By contrast, a decade of austerity
may now enable South Africa to direct
more cash to its poor majority --
without the constraints of an imposed IMF
programme.
"South Africa has
bent over backwards in ways Zimbabwe never did to show it
would be
responsible on the macroeconomic side," said Rashad Cassim, head of
the
economics department at Johannesburg's University of the
Witwatersrand.
DEFICITS, BIG AND SMALL
Between 1980 and
1989, Zimbabwe's budget deficits -- as a percentage of
gross domestic product
(GDP) -- averaged around eight percent, according to
African Development Bank
data.
The difference with the first decade of rule by the African
National
Congress, which won South Africa's first democratic poll in April
1994,
could hardly be starker.
The ANC oversaw a budget deficit in
2002/03 of just 1.1 percent of GDP and
its average since it took office has
been just 2.9 percent.
Its budget deficit estimate for 2003/04 is 2.6
percent of GDP and this is
seen widening to 3.1 percent next year -- but
analysts say the government
can afford to loosen up now and in fact should,
given the country's
gut-wrenching poverty.
"They need to spend more
given the social inequalities and high levels of
poverty, especially since
they can finance it... but the need to do so is
also a result of their
inability to create jobs," said Noelani King Conradie
of NKC
Economists.
"What is a good thing is the fact that much of the
expenditure will be on
infrastructure development which can create jobs and
provide longer-term
opportunities."
The two countries have differed in
other ways as well.
"In South Africa there was an attempt to maintain the
infrastructure by
hiving off activities to the private sector, through toll
roads for example.
And The South African government began liberalising its
trade regime. This
is also a fundamental difference with Zimbabwe," said
Cassim.
Critics of the ANC's macroeconomic policies, including its
alliance
partners, the Communist Party and the Congress of South African
Trade
Unions, maintain that its short-term pain for long-term gain strategy
could
also prove damaging.
Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been
shed as the economy has liberalised
and unemployment runs at well over 30
percent.
Zimbabwe in 1990 did not have South Africa's terrifying rates of
violent
crime nor its glaring income disparities, which some estimates put at
second
only to Brazil's.
South Africa may have the ability now to
spend more on its pressing social
troubles. But if it's too little, too late,
the consequences down the road
could also be ugly.
Copyright 2004,
Reuters News Service
UN Must Charge Mugabe - DA
Business Day
(Johannesburg)
March 3, 2004
Posted to the web March 3,
2004
Jonathan Katzenellenbogen, International Affairs
Editor
Johannesburg
WARNING of possible genocide in Zimbabwe, the
Democratic Alliance (DA) says
it is pushing for action on Zimbabwe by the
United Nations (UN) Security
Council and for President Robert Mugabe to face
charges before the
International Criminal Court.
Speaking to
journalists yesterday in Sandton, DA leader Tony Leon also said
it would be
illegal under the Refugee Act for ousted Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand
Aristide to be granted political asylum in SA as he was guilty
of
human-rights abuses and electoral fraud.
In a blistering attack on Leon
yesterday, the presidency said that Aristide
had not requested asylum in SA
and the matter was not on the cabinet's
agenda. And in response to Leon's
call for the UN to take action over
Zimbabwe, the foreign affairs department
said it made "no apologies for
quiet diplomacy" as it had succeeded in ending
conflicts in a number of
African countries.
To try and bring about UN
Security Council action on Zimbabwe, the DA says
it intends to write to the
current chairman of the body, France, to request
the organisation to make
plans for the event of mass killings or rapes in
Zimbabwe.
Without the
backing of Zimbabwe's neighbours, it is unlikely that the
country could be
declared a threat to international peace and security,
which would allow
action to be taken by the world body. Nevertheless, in the
absence of
regional support for a resolution, the security council could
pass a
resolution condemning Mugabe's government for its rights abuses,
something
that would be of considerable symbolic importance.
At yesterday's press
briefing, Leon also said the party intended to write to
the prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court in The Hague to request
that he open an
investigation into human rights abuses in Zimbabwe as well
as crimes
committed by Zimbabwean forces in the Democratic Republic
of
Congo.
Andre Snyders, a specialist on the International Criminal
Court at the
Institute for Security Studies, says the courts's statute allows
it to
receive information on crimes from individuals and
nongovernmental
organisations.
The Hague-based court, set up in 2001
to prosecute crimes against humanity,
has not yet said what cases it intends
to pursue.
New Zimbabwe
Judges question Moyo's powers as Daily News hearing
opens
By Agencies
03/03/04
TWO Supreme Court judges questioned
powers Zimbabwe's information minister
Jonathan Moyo had given to himself as
the court began hearing a
constitutional challenge brought by the country's
main independent daily, a
fierce critic of President Robert Mugabe, against
tough media laws which
were used to close down the newspaper last
year.
The Daily News was shut down by armed police in September for
operating
without registering with a government commission, a requirement
under a law
passed by Mugabe shortly after his re-election in March
2002.
The Daily News had refused to register, arguing the law
was
unconstitutional.
It mounted a challenge to the Access to
Information and Protection of
Privacy Act in the Supreme Court in September,
but the court said the paper
was operating illegally and should comply with
the law before challenging
it.
A day later police forcibly shut down
the paper.
Various courts have since then ordered that the paper be
allowed to publish
again, but it has only sporadically appeared on
newsstands. The last edition
came out on February 5 this year.
Daily
News lawyer Chris Andersen on Wednesday told the five judges sitting
as a
constitutional court that the paper had now "satisfied the provisions
of the
order made by this court".
This referred to the fact that the Daily News
had applied to the media
commission for a licence, but the application was
turned down.
He said that sections of the media law, which has been
condemned by rights
groups here and abroad, contravened the Zimbabwean
constitution.
These included the section allowing the government to seize
property of a
media house that breaks the law.
Andersen argued that
members of the Media and Information Commission (MIC)
are appointed by the
minister of information and could be suspended by him
and therefore could not
be "independent minds".
In the case of the Daily News it amounted to
being "subjected to discipline
by a hostile minister", Andersen
said.
The Daily News, founded in 1999, has been a thorn in the side of
Mugabe's
government because of its unrelenting criticism of the regime's
policies.
The government has in turn accused the paper of being a front
for Western
interests.
Government lawyer Johannes Tomana defended the
media law as "entirely
reasonable in a democratic society."
But two
judges questioned the power of the minister to hire and fire members
of the
commission.
"Is there justice in it?" asked one judge, Luke
Malaba.
The Daily News is the only independent alternative to Zimbabwe's
two
state-run dailies, The Herald and The Chronicle, and has around one
million
readers.
Tour still likely to go ahead
Zimbabwe opposition call for
cancellation
Wisden Cricinfo staff
March 2,
2004
Zimbabwe's major opposition party, the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC),
has called on the Australians to cancel their
planned visit to the country.
The plea came as Australian cricket officials
arrived in Harare to inspect
facilities and security precautions ahead of the
May tour. The group will
also visit Bulawayo.
Paul Temba Nyathi, a
spokesman for the MDC, said that the tour would give
legitimacy to Robert
Mugabe's discredited regime. "It's a moral issue rather
than one of
security," he said, adding that cancellation was "in the
interests of the
struggling masses of Zimbabweans."
But Michael Brown, Cricket
Australia's operations general manager, said he
and two colleagues had met
government officials, senior police, cricket
executives and Australia's
ambassador on the first of a two-day inspection
mission. "We're only halfway
through our visit. If the standard that we've
seen today is maintained, I see
no reason why we wouldn't be looking forward
to coming," he said. "We think
it is important that we fulfil our
obligation."
Asked whether
Australian spectators would be welcome in Zimbabwe, Brown was
in no doubt. "I
can only say that what I saw in Bulawayo last year were two
of the most
moving experiences that I have seen in my time with cricket. The
first was
the merging of Zimbabwean and Australian cricket supporters at the
ground.
They started off some metres apart but by the end of the game they
were
sharing flags and singing together. The second was the lap of honour
that was
completed by the Australian players to show their appreciation to
the
Zimbabwean people. They wouldn't have done that if it
was
inappropriate."
According to the MDC there were 15 arrests
outside the ground during that
match, and a number of those detained were
subjected to torture.
John Howard, Australia's prime minister, is on
record as saying that the
decision is Cricket Australia's, even though the
government has made it
clear that it feels the tour should be
cancelled.
© Wisden Cricinfo Ltd
Business Report
Nepad reviewers will not brook political
interference
March 3, 2004
By Renée Bonorchis
Kigali, Rwanda - They will neither visit prisons nor knock at the
doors of
presidential palaces to get first-hand information on how African
leaders run
their countries.
But a panel of evaluators, given the job of
reviewing the governance
and human rights records of African governments, say
they have a credible
process that is insulated from political manipulation,
and promise to tell
it as it is.
Under an economic rescue plan,
the New Partnership for Africa's
Development (Nepad), launched two years ago,
leaders agreed to tackle
problems like corruption, civil strife and outdated
infrastructure in return
for more aid and foreign investment.
A
key part of the plan is the so-called "peer-review" system, where
governments
are subjected to examination on commitment to democracy, peace
and security,
economic policy and business environment by a panel of seven
eminent
Africans.
For donors and investors to consider the reviews
credible, they should
not vary too much from what the international community
thinks about a
country, one diplomat in Kigali said.
A situation
like the 2003 elections in Rwanda, where African monitors
gave a highly rosy
view of the polls in contrast with the gloomy picture
painted by Western
observers, would be unfortunate, he said.
It remained to be seen
how frank, in-depth and critical these reports
would be, he
said.
But Anglique Savane, chair of the panel of experts, said such
fears
were unwarranted because her team was fiercely independent and would
not
succumb to any pressures.
"We are not bound by any of these
heads of state, so I have the right
to say what I think ... They cannot ask
me or any of our panel members to
change our views," she said after attending
a heads of state summit to
launch the scheme.
"We are
controversial people back at home and we cannot be
manipulated," said
Savane.
So far only 17 of the African Union's 53 member countries
have agreed
to be peer reviewed.
Oil producer Angola is the
latest inclusion.
Analysts say it will be interesting to see the
evaluators' report on
Angola, where international agencies say as much as $4
billion in oil
revenues - equivalent to 10 percent of gross domestic product
- has been
lost to graft over the past five years.
They have
also set their eyes on Nigeria, where corruption has eroded
billions of
dollars in oil earnings, and Zimbabwe, where human rights
activists say
abuses have escalated rapidly since disputed 2002 presidential
elections won
by President Robert Mugabe.
Academics say elections in Namibia,
Malawi, Mozambique, Botswana and
South Africa this year will also signal
whether Africans are prepared to
hold free and fair polls and open the
closely guarded political space.
The first to be scrutinised is
Ghana, with preparatory work due to
start this month in Rwanda and Kenya and
in Mauritius shortly after. The
reviews will take six to nine
months.
The evaluators will send questions and later visit
countries for three
weeks to talk to the government, opposition politicians,
civic bodies and
donors before they make a report.
Savane, a
Senegalese political activist, said the process would ensure
that the end
product was credible without necessarily being intrusive. "We
are not an
inspector-general," she said when asked whether the team would
visit prisons
to ascertain the truth.
Critics say the problem with the scheme is
that it is voluntary,
meaning countries with the worst records of democracy
will avoid it. Another
downside is that the reports will not be made public
unless the heads of
state agree.
But heads of state would act
against a government, pulling in
sanctions and other measures, if a president
refused to embrace the changes
recommended by the peers, Savane
said.
The backers of the scheme say they are not surprised by the
relatively
small number of countries that have joined the group so
far.
The fact that countries have to pay at least $100 000 (R650
000) to
participate, coupled with a concern that the process gives opposition
and
civic groups too much voice, will put some leaders off - as will the
thought
of being sat down by fellow presidents, questioned and told what to
do.
Officials say some countries have adopted a wait-and-see
attitude to
observe what benefits come to those who have signed
up.
"Our poor countries have been cautious embarking on new
innovative
things ... The main thing is that we must implement the peer
review so that
we can show what the benefits are going to be," said outgoing
Nepad head,
Wiseman Nkuhlu.
News24
DA warns of 'Zim genocide'
02/03/2004 22:15 -
(SA)
Cape Town - Opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon
said on
Tuesday that it was not impossible that there may be a politically
motivated
genocide in Zimbabwe in the coming months.
Speaking at a
news conference on the failure of South Africa's foreign
policy regarding
Zimbabwe at his party's campaign headquarters in
Johannesburg, Leon said that
after much consideration of available evidence
"including the recent
revelations on BBC television of government sponsored
murder and torture
training camps, we believe there is now a possibility
that (President Robert)
Mugabe's regime may begin to engage in the
systematic murder and torture of
its political opponents in the run up to
the next election".
An
election in Zimbabwe is scheduled to take place early next year.
Leon
said agents of the Mugabe government and Zanu-PF loyalists had
already
engaged in mass intimidation, scores of opposition activists had
been
brutally tortured and rape had also been a means of
intimidation.
He said Zimbabwean parliament Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa,
who he was tipped
to succeed Mugabe as president, was head of the Central
Intelligence
Organisation during the 1982-87 Matabeleland
genocide.
Leon noted that he had been embraced at the ruling African
National Congress
conference in Stellenbosch in December 2002.
Leon
charged that Mugabe had reportedly visited the camps and his government
had
full knowledge of what was going on inside them.
"Genocide is thus by no
means an impossible outcome of this process, given
the disturbing precedent
of the Matabeleland massacres of the 1980s."
Leon suggested it would be
"deeply irresponsible" of the South African
government and the international
community not to make contingency plans in
the event that the Mugabe
government and his ruling Zanu-PF "begin to kill
or rape large numbers of
Zimbabweans" in the election run-up.
"One of the greatest failings of the
international community during the
1990s was its inability and unwillingness
to take action to avert genocide
in Rwanda. In the case of Zimbabwe, it would
be tragic if the international
community waited until it was too late to
avert disaster."
Leon said his party would write to France - which
currently presides over
the UN Security Council - to outline our concerns and
request the Security
Council to make a concrete contingency plan which could
be implemented in
the event that mass killings or mass rapes begin in
Zimbabwe.
It would also write to the Office of the Prosecutor of the
International
Criminal Court and request that he open an investigation "into
the crimes of
Robert Mugabe and his associates".
New Zimbabwe
Zim High Court says murder suspects
tortured
• State case in Nkala murder trial
collapses
By Staff Reporter
03/03/04
A HIGH Court judge
has sensationally upheld claims by thee opposition MDC activists that they were
tortured in captivity and castigated state witnesses in a murder trial as
“indulging in the work of fiction” and showing “utter contempt of the due
process of justice”.
Justice Sandra Mungwira told the prosecution in the
trial of the MDC activists over the murder of war veterans’ leader Cain Nkala
that all warned and cautioned statements together with video evidence was
inadmissible as torture had been used to obtain confessions.
Legal experts said the prosecution case had all but
collapsed after the judge tore into the heart of its evidence, judging all the
confessions to have been obtained under duress and therefore inadmissible in the
case.
In a judgement delivered Tuesday, Justice Mungwira
said: “The warned and cautioned indications, statements and video recording
sought to be produced by the State against each of the accused are ruled to be
inadmissible.”
The judgement followed what has been called a “trial
within a trial” after defence lawyers sought the exclusion of all warned and
cautioned statements obtained from their clients under duress.
Cain Nkala was kidnapped and murdered in November
2001. His decomposing body was found in Solusi, about 40km south-west of
Bulawayo. A few days after his kidnap the three accused, Khethani Sibanda,
Remember Moyo and Sazini Mpofu were paraded on state television apparently
making indications to the police to where Nkala’s body was buried in
swamp.
The three were also seen confessing to the crime of
murder and burying Nkala’s body. The police had claimed the information had been
voluntarily given.
The defence team led by Advocates Happias Zhou, Edith
Mushore, Erik Morris and Deepak Mehta instructed by Nicholas Mathonsi and
Josephat Tshuma said the whole indications on the video were rehearsed and the
police had told their clients to repeat what they had told them.
Various methods of torture used by the police were
also described to the court by the three opposition activists who are jointly
charged with MDC legislator Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, Nicholas Masera and Army
Zulu.
In her judgement, Justice Mungwira was scathing about
the conduct of the police and other state witnesses who had come before her. She
said most of their accounts were inconsistent. Most of the witnesses, she said,
had no credibility and appeared to lie repeatedly.
The prosecution, she said, had failed to convince the
court that the statements of the accused could be accepted as a true account of
what they had told their interrogators.
"The witnesses conducted
themselves in a shameless fashion and displayed utter contempt for the due
administration of justice to the extent that they were prepared to indulge in
what can only be described as works of fiction as is especially illustrated by
the state of (the) investigations diary," said Justice
Mungwira.
The Herald
Law students face bleak future
From Masvingo
Bureau
LAW students at Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) face a bleak future
after
the Law Society of Zimbabwe re-affirmed its stance that graduates from
the
university could not be registered to practice as lawyers.
The
society has urged the university to suspend the law degree programme
until it
has satisfied the requirements of the council for legal education.
This
means that more than 200 students the church-run institution has
enrolled
since the university's inception in March 2002 might never
graduate. The
society recently wrote to the university advising it that its
law degree was
not recognised.
In the letter, the president of the Law Society of
Zimbabwe, Mr Joseph
James, said students continuing with the law degree at
GZU were wasting
their time.
"We have recently received complaints
from our members who are being
approached for employment or attachment
opportunities. The position of the
Law Society Council as stated in the
attached letters has not changed and is
hereby re-affirmed.
"Holders
of the GZU law degree are not eligible or entitled to be registered
as legal
practitioners or practice law in Zimbabwe unless and until such a
time as the
stipulated conditions are met," read part of the letter.
Mr James said
the university could only start offering the degree programme
after being
issued with a certificate by the council for legal education.
"Those who
are continuing with the studies under the illegal programme are
wasting their
time and resources and are advised to reconsider or ensure the
university
authorities produce an appropriate programme that they have meet
the
stipulated conditions.
"By copy of this letter, our members are also
being informed not to employ
or consider your students for the reasons
already stated," said Mr James.
Contacted for comment, the assistant
registrar of GZU, Isaac Magaya, denied
that the university had received any
letter concerning the law degree.
Concern over the quality of the GZU law
degree resurfaced after some of the
institution's law students were expelled
from the Masvingo Magistrates Court
and other judicial centres throughout the
country where they were doing
attachments.
In November last year, the
then president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe Mr
Sternford Moyo, wrote a
letter to GZU saying the law degree was not
acceptable for
registration.
In the letter also copied to the Ministry of Justice Legal
and Parliamentary
Affairs, Mr Moyo said the university should first seek the
approval of the
council for legal education.
Among other
preconditions, he said the university should make entry
qualifications for
the degree to be compatible with those of the University
of Zimbabwe and
improve the quality of resource materials.
Dear All,
I ask that you pass this onto anyone who you
think needs to know about
this. For the overseas people, please pass it onto
any friends you may have
in Zimbabwe, because they like us may have a false
sense of security.
For family & close friends this is just to
let you know what happened.
Whilst it happened in Mutare, the gang operates
country wide including
Bulawayo, Harare & Gweru, etc. & they are
known rapists as well as robbers.
We became, the fourth victim in Mutare & I
have seen a similar account for a
family in Harare, & probably the same
gang. No one will dare try a
defamation of character law suit, because we
have an admission from the
security company concerned, & an eye witness.
I apologize for the length of
the account but it gives you an idea of the
time span involved. Firstly let
me say outright, we are alive & unharmed
only by the protection & Grace of
God, & still continuously thank
him.
At about 10.00pm on Saturday 24th January 2004,
we were tired & closed up
the house to go to bed. We had just settled in
& armed the alarm system,
when at 10.15pm the alarm went off indicating
the problem to be in the
kitchen/laundry area. As we have an armed response
alarm with Safeguard
Security, so we received the usual phone call from them
enquiring what was
going on, whilst I was checking the kitchen/laundry area I
noticed the
broken window in the laundry which was now open. I proceeded to
tell them
there had been an attempted break in so please could they come
immediately
(they promise a 4 minute maximum reaction time).
After about 2-minutes A-M & I returned to
the Laundry I collected the
pick/axe handle which is well weighted & made
out of the usual hard gum tree
wood. I grabbed a torch & opened the front
door, to see a guy about 5-meters
away standing outside the big bay window.
He charged at the front door, but
I was quicker & shut the door with the
Yale lock on & then hit the button on
the Yale look so that it cannot
even be opened with a key. At this time the
guy tried to kick the door in but
failed. I warned A-M, who was still
in the laundry & then another guy
appeared at the broken window & fired
shots in the air. This alerted our
next door neighbour who came outside to
see what was going on & who
became an eye witness to what happened.
Mean while A-M ran through the kitchen &
down the passage collecting
the children, locking themselves firstly in the
main bed room & secondly in
the bathroom on suite. While A-M ran through
the kitchen they smashed
a very large bay window in the kitchen which became
their entry point. I hid
at the door way between the entrance hall &
dining room (after hitting the
panic alarm button) knowing he (I was still
not aware that there were more
than one) had to pass me without knowing I was
there before he could proceed
beyond the kitchen. When I heard him very close
I hid behind the wall & took
a very large but blind swing with the pick
handle. From his shout I must
have been very close, & the damage to the
wooden door frame (I still don't
remember hitting the door frame) is so
severe if I had hit him, I would have
either killed him or done a large
amount of damage to him.
At this time 2 of them went the other side of
the dining-room table & I saw
that they were armed with revolvers (I
think that the one of the attending
policeman still cannot understand why the
revolver did not expend the spent
casing!) Thinking that there were only 2,
at this stage I hid behind an
alcove wall between the passage & the door
I had just launched my attack
from for protection but unsure which side they
we coming from (there are 2
doors into the lounge/dinning room area, one
either side of the door) I
looked through the other door way to the one I
launched my attack from to
see the one who eventually turned out to be the
ring leader coming that way.
He took a shot at me with the revolver. I felt
the breeze of the bullet as
it passed at heart height next to my arm &
felt the plaster & concrete bits
spray me on the back of the
neck.
Fortunately the bullet ricochet hit the piano
& lodged in the wood work
otherwise it would have hit me in the back. The
way he snatched the shot I
knew he did not know how to aim properly, so I
thought I still had a chance.
I moved to the right side, & saw the third
guy, but armed with a pistol not
a revolver coming from the first door way.
At that stage I realised that I
had no chance of survival so I gave my self
up.
The guy with the pistol proceeded to beat me
around the head with the
pistol, & I thought he had broken my nose, but
now on Tuesday there is no
swelling. They made me lie down & tore a
curtain to tie my feet & used an
electric cable to tie my hands. The ring
leader ran down the passage to the
main bed room & beat on the door
telling A-M to unlock & let him in.
When nothing happened he ran back up
to me & asked me where she was &
because I had received a blow on the
back of the skull I was fighting to
keep awake, determined that I had to stay
awake to still protect the family.
He ran down to the main bedroom & banged on
the door again, with no response
& at this stage I was once again
thinking very clearly. He came back & asked
me where A-M was, &
fearing that they would rape her T &
c, I thought very clearly & told
him there was an outside door down
at the bottom (this was no lie) & that
A-M had probably already left
the house using this door & ran away. He
now ignored A-M & started to
take the computers (our old lap top &
the computer we use for the school
work) & a few small items from the
second lounge which we use as a school
room.
During this time the second guy was searching
for stuff in the lounge &
dining room, taking our CD player DSTV
Satellite decoder VCR & mobile
phones. The third guy was guarding me
making sure I was not going to move.
The ring leader then asked where we kept
our money I told him we used credit
cards so there was very little money.
They searched A-Mes hand bag
decided it was worth taking to examine later
removed the car keys, as well
as my office keys & my car keys. They
succeeded in unlocking the garage &
proceeded to load A-Me's car with the
goods. They then left me to jump
inside the car to get away. On their way out
they fired more shots. By the
time they fired the shots I had succeeded in
freeing myself (I still can't
remember how).
Knowing the gang were still in the yard I went
down to the bedroom to make
sure that A-M & the Kids were okay. At that
point they forced the gate
& left in the car. I knocked on the door said
it was me & they unlocked the
door, relieved to see me because they
thought I was dead, when the shooting
had stopped. I must say they all did
well keeping quiet encouraging each
other, & even D at 13 was extremely
level headed. We now phoned the
Safeguard number about the armed response
& was told that they were already
at the house. We said that they were no
where to be seen. We gave up on them
& phoned people down the road (the
Valentines) because we could easily find
their phone number, & asked Stu
to get hold of Borders MD & ask him to meet
me at the hospital at the out
patients. I took T with because she had
a provisional licence,) in case I had
concussion) & went to the hospital, &
left A-M to handle the
rest.
When we left the gate, I saw the safeguard guys
parking outside, & told them
that they should have been there long ago
(it was now about 20 to 25 minutes
after the first alarm had gone off) &
carried onto the hospital. The MD
arrived at the hospital 2-minutes after I
did & was very good. When I
returned to the house the police had been
there for a while complete with
tracker dogs (for once they did not ask for
transport) but because they had
got away in a vehicle the dogs were useless
to use.
The next day, Sunday, A-M's car was located in a
near by rural
(communal area) area but a write off since the gang had tried
to rob a store
there but the locals stoned the car to a point where it is a
complete write
off. The robbers again had to fire shots to escape the angry
mob. They left
A-Me's hand bag in the car & had removed the SIM cards
from the phones
& left the cards in the car. All the rest of the lost
goods were dropped off
before they hit the store. Sunday investigation with
CID when interviewing
the next door neighbour revealed that the armed
response had arrived
literally seconds after the first shots, driven past the
gate & parked up
the road until they were sure that the coast was
clear.
The MD & George Theart interviewed the
Mutare Branch Manager for Safeguard,
who plainly stated that, a) his guys had
instructions not to enter a
premises when shots were being fired until after
the robbers has left the
premises, b) and he was proud of this, that only
2-weeks ago he had been
able for the first time to give the response teams
fire arms practice. For
the lack of response he sited police regulations
prevented them from
shooting at any one, but I will be checking up on this
one with the officer
commanding CID Mutare. I also positively identified the
leader of the gang
from a CID photograph shown to me on Sunday, which has
linked this incident
to a large amount of others over the
country.
Earlier this evening (Tuesday after the event) D
found another bullet
lodged in the kitchen cupboards, fired at A-M when she
ran through the
kitchen towards the passage. Again this indicates the gang's
intentions.
The last few nights have been a mental
nightmare, knowing that if the alarm
goes off & we need real help, that
it will not be there. It will take a very
long time to get over this for us
all & it is actually worse now than during
the event. The smallest noise
can send one of us into a total panic
especially at night. The sad thing is
that one of the reasons why we decided
to leave Zimbabwe was because of the
security problems, & we did not want to
become a victim, but now we have
become a victim, & for us it proves we have
made the right choice to
leave Zimbabwe.
For those of you who know them, We thank all for
the support given but
especially the following:-
Bucs Shingadia & his Mom for making sure we
were fed on Sunday, & checking
up on us 3 times, Stu & Helen
Valentine for the support, organizing security
guards for the rest of
Saturday night, letting other people know, & the
chocolate cake. John
Gadzikwa Border Timbers MD for the support & using his
authority to
ensure we feel as safe as possible, including taking up the
armed response
issue. George Theart for the support & provision of extra
security guards
since Sunday night, & also taking up the armed response
issue. Peter
Morrisby, a concerned neighbour living in Dave Robinson's old
house (a block
away from us) who phoned the armed response company a number
of times on
Saturday night when he heard the shooting, & then came to make
sure we
okay on Sunday morning. We have never met this man before but he
knew which
house had the problems, & behaved in a manner we thought had
been
forgotten 20 years ago. George Bottger, Lonely Nyathi, Rex Walton,
Alois
Mabutho, Tonderai Kachale, & anyone I have forgotten for helping in
ways
which were unexpected including giving A-M the support whilst I
was
busy with the police on Sunday while going to find her car. This means a
lot
to me personally & I am just as grateful to them as everyone
else.
Please do learn the lesson we have learned but
do it the easy way. DO NOT
RELY ON OTHERS ESPECIALLY ARMED RESPONSE SECURITY
COMPANIES BECAUSE IT COULD
COST YOU YOUR LIFE! MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A SAFE
ROOM, BUT WITH A SECURE EXIT
IN CASE YOU NEED TO USE IT. YOUR FAMILY WILL
APPRECIATE THIS AT THE TIME.
MAKE SURE YOUR FAMILY IS DRILLED IN THE USE OF
THIS ROOM & WHAT TO DO IF
TROUBLE STARTS. FOR US THIS MEANT THAT I COULD
CONCENTRATE ON THE TASK AT
HAND. Please pass this on to as many people as
possible so that they may
learn from our experiences. Thanks P, A-M, T, C
&
D